Written by

Cheryl Herrick

Free Press correspondent

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Food will be served in three venues through the weekend: the pre-screening reception at the Essex Cinemas, the Arcade in the Atrium at the Essex Resort, and the “Dinner in the Mansion” at the resort. (Top-tier ticket holders will be able to attend all three.)

Here are Chef Shawn Calley’s favorite items from each.

Reception: Miniature pork medallions with veal liver mousse and mustard-spiced fruit, soaked in liqueur in a classic English style.

“That was one I had never come across before, but found online and it sounded so good. It’s fun because we’re getting people to try something new with something familiar. We brought that back from last year because we all enjoyed it so much,” Calley said.

Dinner in the Mansion: The chef especially is proud of the third of six courses: A mushroom-stuffed tenderloin of beef, topped with fried oysters, and with beet pudding and creamed spinach.

“The beet pudding is really great, classic, and something you don’t see a lot. There were people at our press event who said it was the best thing they had ever had. (We) cooked the tenderloin sous-vide, old mixed with new, low temperature. We use a little molecular gastronomy in the beet pudding, using new techniques but the food looks really classic on the plate. It helps the food transcend from the old to the new.”

Calley also points to the sit-down meal’s dessert as an example of how differently food was treated in the past. “The Simmel Easter cake is a classic English dessert cake, one of the most classic in history (even though it’s usually served in spring of course). I read a whole thing about it, and it has 12 balls of marzipan on it representing the 12 apostles. You don’t see that these days — people just make food because it’s food.